Wrist watch bracelet



Filed July 2, 1936 PIC-3.5,

INVENTOR fiZ A LAUFF- ATTORNEY 4 Patented May 31, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2 Claims.

The present invention pertains to a novel wrist watch bracelet of such construction and design as to be equally appropriate for men, women and children.

The principal object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive watch bracelet having an attractive appearance and desirable qualities as to strength, durability, flexibility, and adjustability. The bracelet comprises several parallel strands and each strand consists of hollow balls or beads united by headed wire links. This type of chain may be manufactured very cheaply by production processes. Although having considerable strength, the wire links may be readily cut to adjust the chain to the desired length. Novel effects may be obtained in the plating of the chain and in various arrangements of the strands.

The invention further includes anchoring devices for the ends of the chain. These are in.

the nature of simple stampings having no movable parts and designed to hold the ends of the chains by friction. Consequently, the ends are readily inserted but do not become released accidentally, inasmuch as some degree of force is necessary to remove them.

The invention is fully disclosed by way of example in the following description and in the accompanying drawing in which Figure l is an elevation, partly in section, of one of the strands;

Figure 2 is a plan view of one of the anchoring devices, showing also the ends of the chain re ceived therein;

Figure 3 is a section on the line 33 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a section on the line 44 of Figure 2, and

Figure 5 is a plan view of a wrist watch equipped with a bracelet according to the invention.

Reference to these views will now be made by use of like characters that are employed to designate corresponding parts throughout.

In Figures 1 and 3 is illustrated the chain from which the watch bracelet is made. The chain consists of hollow balls I joined together by intervening solid links 2. The assembly is made by means of suitable machinery, and in connection therewith, each of the balls is apertured at diametrically opposite points as indicated by the numeral 3. The links 2 consist of Wire stock and are headed at 4 within the balls I The heads are also rounded at 5 to facilitate swinging of the links relatively to the balls and thereby increasing the flexibility of the chain. The parts as shown in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 are approximately eight times actual size, but the balls may be as small as inch in diameter.

The bracelet consists of several parallel chains as shown in Figures 2 and 5, and the ends of the chains are held in locking or anchoring devices as illustrated in Figures 2 and 4. Each such anchoring device consists of a stamping shaped to form a number of parallel troughs 6 equal in number to the chains or strands used in assembling the strap or bracelet. Adjacent troughs are defined or separated by means of inward ridges 1 formed in the metal. At one end of the troughs, the stamping is fastened to the watch case or to a part of the clasp, as will presently app-ear. At the other end, the outer side walls of the outer troughs are bent over or partly across these troughs in the form of cheeks 8. Further, the metal at the unattached end of the stamping is also bent over in the form of checks 9 twice as large as the cheeks 8, each of the cheeks 9 extending partly across and along to adjacent troughs.

The cheeks 8 and 9 are of spherical configuration for a purpose presently to be described. The intervening space I0 between them is slightly less in width than the diameter of the links 2.

As previously indicated, stampings of the character described are attached to opposite sides of the watch case H as indicated by the numeral I2 in Figure 5. One of the end balls of each chain is retained in each of the troughs 6. For the purpose of assembly in this manner, the cheeks 8 and 9 are spaced from the attached end of the stamping a distance at least equal to the diameter of the balls I to permit insertion of the balls in the troughs and beneath the cheeks. The end balls must be pulled under the cheeks with a small amount of force, inasmuch as the checks are spaced from the bottoms of the troughs a distance slightly less than diameter of the balls. Consequently, the balls are held under the cheeks by pressure of the cheeks therein.

As'shown in Figure 2, each of the spaces l0 widens at its ends as indicated by the numeral 13. Consequently, the links 2 are readily inserted in one end of a space Ill and accommodated in the other end, but are prevented from returning to the intermediate part of the space in the and IT. The attached end of each of the anchoring devices is preferably curled at I8 around a stem l9 comprised in the Watch case II and p the clasp elements I6, 11.

A watch bracelet constructed in the manner described has numerous advantages. It possesses great strength and flexibility and yet is incapable of stretching. It is readily reduced to size merely by cutting off the required number of beads. In this connection, the chain must initially have-at least therequired length, and can be easily cut inasmuch as the links 2, consistof comparatively thin wire. Great flexibility is made possible by the swivel movement of the rounded heads 4 within the balls I. Adjustments can be made within a fine range becauseof the small diameter of the beads.

The chain may be plated with any desired metal or adjacent strands may be plated with different metals for design effects. Further, the appearance may again be modified by staggeringthe beads of adjacent strands.

As distinguished from other metal or link type watch bracelets, the device of the present invention does not catch or pull the hair owing to the spherical shape of the members I and the remoteness of the apertures 3 from the skin. For

the same reason, there is no pinching of the skin.

With regard to the anchoring devices, these are inexpensively manufactured by a stamping process and are not complicated by moving parts. The end balls are readily inserted therein and held frictionally, but cannot be accidentally refrom the'scope of the invention, as indicated by V 10 the appended claims. What I claim is:

1. A bracelet comprising a beaded chain, a

stamped metal end anchor shaped to form. a trough with spaced cheeks overlying the same, the

'end bead being received on the bottom of said trough and beneath said cheeks, said cheeks exerting spring pressure on said bead against said bottom.

2. A bracelet for a Wrist Watch or the like comprising spaced hollow beads apertured at diametrically opposite points, wire links disposed between said beads, each link extending into two of said apertures, a stamped metal end anchor shaped to form a trough with spaced cheeks overlying the bottom of the trough, the end bead being received on the bottom of said trough and beneathsaid cheeks, said cheeks exerting spring pressure on said bead against said bottom, the intermediate part of the space between said cheeks being narrower than the diameter of said links.

MAX LAUFF. 

